Parting Words
by Cvaboda
Summary: Edward never came back for Bella and she lived her life to the fullest. Now, at age ninety-eight she writes him a letter. Will he come back for her one last time? A maybe two-shot, otherwise one-shot.
1. Bella's Letter

Dear Edward,

I find it funny that I only work up the courage to write to you only when lying in the hospital, waiting for my time to go into the next abyss. The only reason that I am able to write to you now, is because I persuaded the nurse that I wasn't as frail as the vase right next to me on the stand. I honestly do hope that I don't look _that _bad. Yes, my hands are a little bit wrinkled but honestly, who cares?

I know that I will be gone by the time that you will read this letter. But for old times sake, I will ask you some questions.

So. How are you?

You don't have to answer that one.

How is everyone else?

Good, bad?

Maybe that is really not working out. The casual approach didn't work. But I wont go wasting the one sheet of paper that I had to pry from the nurse's hand.

I guess I should start with the absolute truth.

Today is my ninety-eighth birthday.

I have had a heart attack, and heat stroke.

The only reason I am able to see the sunlight today is because of the brilliant doctors that are keeping me alive for no reason. For them I am grateful. Eternally grateful.

My job had been a photographer for a big newspaper, although the name seems to slips my mind. I started out small, taking only shots of the city and its people, covers for boring politics magazines, advertisement.

Then I was introduced to the amazing world of traveling photography, and I was off around the world, taking shots of everything. With these pictures, I became prominent in the business.

I remained anonymous. My projects became grander and grander. I shot warzones and starving children. I shot the North Korean landscape (barely got out too). I shot the ice of Antarctica and in the white inhabitants. I captured everything I could, of the beauty and the ugliness of the whole world.

I received praise for all of the wrong reasons. No one ever got the underlying message. Ever.

No one understood or will ever understand that in all of this chaotic beauty, I was searching for someone. Maybe not someone but something.

A family.

A friend.

You.

Yes, yes, now I remember. I was searching for you.

Now, I will say it as loud and as clear as I can.

I am madly in love with you. I always have been. Almost to the point of insanity.

One, though, cannot go on such adventures without learning something. I learned that in order to let go you must learn to forgive. To forgive yourself, to forgive the ones you lost. And then you will find the closes thing to serenity. I can't say that I found serenity but I found hope and happiness.

People ask me, am I lonely?

I never answer properly, but for you, I will make an exception.

I have never been lonely. When I fall asleep, I hear your lullaby. I feel as though you have been watching me, protecting me from the inevitable end as long as you could. This is the best feeling that one can have. Loneliness is something I have never felt before in my life. There is only one last thing that I have to say right now.

Thank you. For giving me your love. Thank you.

Bella

_Authors Note: An idea that has been bouncing around. Counterpart might be coming soon (Edward POV). So please leave me a note. Otherwise, thank you for reading.:) Sorry for any mistakes, this is un-beta'ed._

_Disclaimer: Anything publicly recognized is not mine. _


	2. Edward's Regret

It was raining in Forks, as it always had been. Edward wished that he could have taken it for some kind of omen, but he couldn't. It was just unavoidable.

His footsteps didn't make any sounds, nor would they ever.

The single red rose in his hands was a bright burst of color in contrast to the rather bland cemetery.

_Bella doesn't deserve this._

_She waited for you, all her life and this is how you repay her? Asshole. _

_She loved you Edward. You need to give her at least on last chance._

_Do what is best for Bella for once. Not for yourself._

His family's words burned in his mind. He had deserved every on of their contempt looks. Their scathing words.

He had done the unforgivable.

He would never be forgiven, not by the one he loved the most.

Pity had become almost become a constant companion of his own. Regret needs no mention. The rain gently fell, soaking him.

Did he care? Obviously not.

His slow trudge became as he neared the small white stone slab that had been laid gently down on top of her gentle mahogany head. Edward dared not look at it in full, for he knew as well as anyone that it wasn't the bang that ripped through the soul, but the wait.

The grass was green. The rain was ceasing, but not fully. The drizzle irritated him out of his mind, why wouldn't it just stop?

Finally, he let his eyes land on the white stone.

Even he couldn't control his breathing. No matter what creature he had been.

It's simplicity shocked him, but there was an underlying tone of infinite complexity.

How could you capture what one was on a piece of stone? Yet humans did it, almost every hour of the waking day.

The white tone to the rock made it glow softly, its radiance soft and not at all over powering. A small carving peaked out from behind on the stone, on the top right. A small angel looked at him, the smallest of smiles gracing its lips.

_Bella._

Edward did not bother to read the words yet, for he was on his knees. The dry sobs escaped from his throat, without the companions of tears. Time was not his companion either, for it passed with the slowest lurches.

Greif overpowered him.

Without bothering to read anything, he stood up.

He ran with the wind, until he couldn't find anymore wind.

* * *

When Edward came back, he was prepared for everything.

His heart would never accept that she was truly gone, but his sensible mind would.

Her stone's beauty would never fail to awe him, and his regret would never fail to kill him every single moment of his eternity.

The words on the stone simply stated,

_Bella Marie Swan_

_1920-2012_

_Loved by all, and loved every one of us._

_Her undying love and forgiveness shall live,_

_In us all._

His mind repeated these words over and over. Every so softly, he traced these letters. The silence was broken, by the sound of the caressing wind on his cheek, ruffling his hair.

He stepped closer, and his shoe hit something. Looking down curiously, he saw that it was a plastic container. In side were two pieces of paper. The first words he read were..

_Dear Edward,_

_ I find it funny that I only work up the courage to write to you only when lying in the hospital, waiting for my time to go into the next abyss…._

…_._ _For giving me your love. Thank you._

_Bella_

He devoured the words hungrily, like a child having just unlocked the key to reading. His dead heart, already broken, shattered to millions of pieces. The lump in his throat stubbornly stayed there. He cleared it, and did the only thing that he could think of.

"Hello Bella. I got your letter."

For a moment he could say nothing else, that dratted wind took away his thoughts.

"I will say this loud and clear. So that God himself can hear me. My love for you is the strongest substance in the world. Only it was awarded to a fool who never would know what the hell to do with it. God, Bella, I should have never let you out of my sight. I should have cherished your smile a thousand times more than I did. I should have….."

Edward stopped.

Bella stood in front him. The same Bella that he had left almost eighty something years ago. He couldn't even remember when. Her hair swayed gently in the wind.

"Edward."

Her voice rang out loud and clear.

"You must listen to me. You cannot stop living your life in the way I had tried not to. I will always live on right in here."

Her finger grazed his chest, and its warm touch sent a healing warmth throughout his body. He couldn't bring himself to say a single word.

"I love you, Edward."

She was gone with the wind right then, disappeared as abruptly as she had come.

Edward stood there for another five minutes. Then his feet slowly carried him away, his mind at war with itself.

What would he believe? What should he believe?

As he made his way out of the cemetery, he passed a small young woman dressed in black. When he passed her, there was that moment when their eyes met.

Those warm brown eyes that would haunt him forever.

He froze, staring down at her.

She smiled ever so slightly, just the almost imperceptible upturn of the lips.

And winked.

**~FIN~**

**A/n:I'll just leave it at that...**

**Twilight is owned by Stephanie Meyer, not me. Anything else that the public can recognize, is not mine.**


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